Her Dark Angel (4 page)

“He’ll be here.” The tremble in her voice betrayed the nerves he could easily feel in her.

Was she having second thoughts? Her form of revenge was far more gentle and lenient than his. He could happily cast her unfaithful lover into the bottomless pit to suffer there with the Devil and the other sinners.

Her heartbeat quickened. He looked ahead, following her gaze, and saw the neon sign. She had mentioned the club to him. It was one she had frequented with the man called Edward. Apollyon had yet to get a description of his target but she would do better and point him out if the man was in the club.

“I shouldn’t be asking you to do this.” Serenity stopped and turned to face him. “It’s really not right.”

“You are only asking me to pretend that I am your new lover. It will be an easy charade, and it will not contravene any law of the contract that lies between us.” He smiled at her and she nodded. Nothing could contravene the laws of their contract. He hadn’t invited her to create any or made any of his own. Whatever she desired of him, she would have.

Sin or no sin involved.

And he was fine with that.

Serenity moved closer to him. He had forgotten how good females smelt. Her light perfume teased his senses with its floral notes, and lured him to her as much as her appearance. She had never looked this beautiful in the pool.

She went to move away but he caught her wrist and she stopped.

“You are nervous.” He grazed his fingertips over her skin, enjoying the silky warm feel of her. Whenever he touched her, he didn’t want to let her go. He wanted to run his hands over every inch of her and feel the subtle differences across her body, studying her and memorising every supple plane and curve.

“You would be too if you were about to walk into a club with an angel on your arm.” There was a hint of a joke about her tone but he knew that she was being serious. His appearance to her disconcerted her.

“I do not look like an angel to them.” He took hold of her shoulders and turned her to face the dark window of the shop behind her.

Her eyes widened. Whatever ability she had, she evidently couldn’t see through an illusion he cast on something else. He was projecting his image onto his reflection, so she would see what other mortals did when they looked at him.

“You look like that?”

He nodded and leaned forwards until his chest was close to her shoulders, and looked down at her face.

“Does my reflection satisfy you?”

She looked at him over her shoulder, her face close to his. “I think I prefer to see you as you are.”

The honesty in those words touched his heart. His gaze fell to her lips and he stepped back, away from the temptation they presented.

“You have taste though,” she said and he looked back at her. “In suits and in armour.”

Apollyon smiled. “If you are satisfied, then let us begin your revenge.”

He held his hand out to her, only meaning for her to take it as a hint to go to the club rather than for her to hold it but she slipped hers into it. Her hand was small in his, delicate. He held it and walked with her to the club, trying to remember if he had ever held someone’s hand before. If he had, it was too long ago to recall and it couldn’t have felt this good. He wouldn’t have forgotten it if it had.

The man on the door stepped aside the moment they neared. Serenity looked at him. He shrugged. Some mortals were easier to use compulsion on than others. The bouncer had been an easy target. A message sent straight into the man’s head saying that he wanted to let the beautiful woman pass had been enough to make him lift the red velvet rope for them.

Apollyon led her down into the dark interior of the basement club and then she moved in front of him when they reached the crowded space at the foot of the stairs. Blue neon lit the black bar, white spotlights casting pale light over the bartenders and the patrons gathered there.

Serenity walked further into the club and Apollyon put his surroundings to memory. The dance floor was small and busy with mortals performing what he could only interpret as clothed sex. Blue strobes and lasers made their movements stuttered and broken. Clusters of tall round black tables surrounded by stools lined the edges of the room. Most of them were full. The music was too loud, a fast and hard beat that made him miss the relative peace of Hell.

Serenity stopped again and he bumped into the back of her. The feel of her warm body against his stirred him as badly as the coffee had done and he backed off a step so she wouldn’t notice. She looked over her shoulder at him and motioned with her eyes towards the dance floor.

If she expected him to be able to pick out Edward from a crowd, she was overestimating his abilities.

She took hold of his arm and he felt her fingers against his skin rather than the jacket of his suit. She could reach through his glamour too. He burned where she touched, growing hungry for more, for her to touch other parts of him.

He was starting to see why his fellow warriors had pledged themselves to mortal women.

She tiptoed, her breasts pressing against his arm and his chest, and he lowered his ear to her mouth when he finally clawed back enough sense to realise that she wanted to say something to him.

“The mousy haired man, white shirt, exposing far too much chest,” she shouted into his ear and he grimaced. He should have told her that he had sensitive hearing.

He looked for his target, gaze scanning the dancers, and zeroed in when he spotted him. He was showing far too much chest, his white shirt had at least the top three buttons undone, and he was dancing with a slender dark-haired woman in a revealing tight pale dress.

“Is that the female he betrayed you with?” He frowned. The woman was nothing compared with Serenity. His gaze shifted to her and she shook her head.

What sort of womaniser had Serenity been involved with? The thought of her with such a man made him desire to change plans and send the man to Hell after all.

“Do you want a drink?” she shouted over the noise of the music.

Apollyon shook his head. “I do not think alcohol would be wise. I have not tasted it before and I am not sure whether it is still forbidden.”

Serenity looked past him to the bar. “Well, I need a drink.”

“Then a drink you will have.” He released her hand. “I will be just a moment.”

He heard her gasp when he disappeared. A woman looked right at him when he appeared in a space next to her, accidently knocking against her, and he smiled his apology. The anger that had been in her dark eyes disappeared in an instant.

“Can I buy you a drink, Handsome?” She fluttered her long lashes at him and smiled.

He had never been in the game but he knew when a woman was flirting. He looked over towards Serenity where she stood by the dance floor, staring over the heads of the crowd at him, the shock still on her face.

“I am here with someone.” He sensed the woman’s gaze leave him.

She snorted. “Really, you ought to trade up.”

Was she insinuating that Serenity wasn’t good enough for him and that perhaps she was?

He laughed. He had never heard something so ridiculous. Why would he want to leave Serenity for the woman before him? Serenity was kind, warm, he looked back at her and his smile slowly fell as it began to dawn on him, and beautiful.

She really was beautiful.

And he wanted her.

He had never wanted a mortal woman before.

But he wanted her.

He flagged down the bartender and compelled him to make the same brightly coloured drink as the flirtatious woman had in front of her. The man made it and slid it across the bar to him. Apollyon took it and left, disappearing and reappearing beside Serenity.

She gasped again and then smiled when he held the drink out to her.

“I am not sure what it is.”

“Did your new friend recommend it?” She was still smiling but there was something different about her.

Something darker that came with a strong sense of power.

Jealous?

“She recommended something else and I refused.” He offered the drink again and Serenity took it this time, moved the small black straws around and then sucked on them.

Apollyon stared at her mouth, mesmerised as she removed the straws and licked her lips.

“Good?” he said and she nodded.

The power that had radiated from her disappeared and she smiled. He had never dealt with a witch before. Could she curse him? He wasn’t sure if his own powers would stand against hers and he didn’t want to find out.

The table nearest them became free and he placed his hand against her elbow, guiding her over to it. She slid into the tall black stool and placed her drink down on the round black table. Apollyon sat opposite her, watching her sip her drink and waiting.

The music continued to pound but soon changed to a new song. Some of the dancers left the floor and walked past them towards the bar. Apollyon reached across the table and placed his hand over Serenity’s when Edward walked past.

He smiled at Serenity when he felt Edward’s gaze light on them and then he moved on. Her eyes widened and then she looked at Apollyon.

“Did he see?” She leaned towards him, affording him a glorious view down her black dress to her breasts.

Was she trying to tempt him?

“He saw.” Apollyon looked over his shoulder, tracking Edward’s progress across the room.

Edward was shorter than him, and his build was slighter. He seemed plain in the face but it was difficult to tell in such poor light. He must have some good qualities to draw Serenity to him and make her care for him. Right now though, Apollyon couldn’t see anything good in him. He saw only a sinner, a man to be punished and made to suffer, just as his mistress desired.

Edward reached the bar and looked back at him.

No, at them. He was looking at them. He would have seen that Serenity was with him and that they were more than just friends.

Serenity sipped her drink again and Apollyon grazed his thumb lightly over the back of her hand, staring at them. She didn’t seem to mind him touching her, or was it all part of the act? His blue gaze rose to her face, studying her as she sucked on the two small black straws. Her blonde hair shone blue in the lights. The colour of them washed out her skin and made her make-up even darker.

She looked up from her drink and released the straws. Her smile teased him, curving her dark lips and tempting him to take this charade further just to see how she would react.

“What sort of spells can you cast?” he said over the noise of the music.

She slowly stirred her drink with the straws, staring into his eyes the whole time. Did she have to think that hard about it? Could she cast spells on men that made them her willing slave? If she could, he would swear that she had cast one on him.

“My mother told me only to do magic that benefitted others, and I had until today.” She lifted the glass to her lips, pushed the straws aside, and took a long gulp of the drink. She set the empty glass down. “I’ve done minor curses for people, spells to aid maternity and conception, and love spells of course.”

Love spells.

Perhaps she had cast that spell on him.

She had never used magic to benefit herself before today.

He had seen enough of the world to know that she was unusual in that respect. Her warmth, her selflessness and kindness, spoke to his heart, making her more beautiful. She thought only of helping others when most who possessed her powers would use them to profit from other humans. Power was a drug to mortals. He had seen the effect it had on them. Another person with her abilities would have used it to make them rich, important and popular, lured in by the promises of false happiness it gave, addicted to it.

Serenity seemed immune to it, and when she had finally succumbed to using it for herself, it had been to heal the pain in her heart and have vengeance. The hurt her ex-lover had caused her had driven her to use her power.

And Apollyon had heard her call and responded.

Perhaps he was the result of her spell after all. Her magic could have amplified her voice and he could have heard it because his focus had been on her at the time.

“You are never tempted to use them?”

She shook her head and then glanced away. “Perhaps sometimes.”

Sometimes.

Her gaze snuck back to him, meeting his, and her cheeks darkened. It would have been impossible to see it if he hadn’t been watching for it. She had considered a spell. On who? On Edward or on him? Revenge or love?

Serenity’s other hand settled over their joined ones. It was cold from holding the glass but soon warmed on contact with his skin. She turned the hand beneath his, trapping his between hers.

“Do you think we should dance?” There was a nervous edge to her expression and her gaze flickered past him, over his shoulder.

“Is he still watching?” Apollyon could already feel the man’s gaze on his back.

She nodded.

“Then we should definitely dance.”

She hesitated. “Is it okay to dance... to do any of this?”

How many times was she going to ask him the same question? His answer wasn’t going to change. Whatever she wanted, he would do it.

Apollyon took hold of her hand, stood and walked around the table to her. His smile seemed to give her the answer that she was looking for, bringing another dark blush to her cheeks, and she slipped from her stool and followed his lead towards the dance floor.

The music was heavier now, harder, and slower. The people on the dance floor were bordering on clothed sex again and, for a moment, he wondered if it really was a good idea. He wasn’t sure where a dance would lead, but the look in Serenity’s eyes said that wherever it took them, it wasn’t pretend.

He pulled her into his arms, so her hands were against his chest, and stood there with her, looking down into her wide eyes. Her pupils dilated, darkening her irises, full of passion and hunger that he could feel beating in her heart.

Whenever she let go of her nerves and of the fact that he was an angel, she was more confident, sensual in her movements and almost flirtatious in her air around him. He wanted her like that now, and not because it would make Edward jealous to see it.